Battle of White Mountain

The Battle of White Mountain occurred on 8 November 1620 during the Thirty Years' War. The battle, fought near Prague in the present-day Czech Republic, marked the end of the Bohemian Revolt, as the Bohemian and German Protestant army was utterly destroyed by a Catholic army under Count Tilly. The battle led to the fall of Prague and the reimplementation of Habsburg rule in Bohemia, but the war would soon spread across Europe and ultimately resulted in a Catholic defeat.

Background
In the aftermath of the failure of the Protestants' second siege of Vienna in November 1618, the main Bohemian Protestant army under Count Jindrich Matyas Thurn was forced to retreat to Bohemia as the Transylvanian ruler Gabriel Bethlen withdrew to his threatened homeland to face a Polish invasion. Imperial diplomats then negotiated with Gabriel to cease his support for the Bohemians, and he agreed on 20 January 1620. Throughout the year, a 20,000-strong Spanish army under Ambrogio Spinola marched into the Palatinate, aiming to secure Catholic League territories such as Bavaria. Meanwhile, a 30,000-strong Catholic League army under Count Tilly occupied Upper Austria and the Count of Bucquoy's force occupied Lower Austria. This done, Bucquoy and Tilly's armies united and thrust into Bohemia, seeking a decisive engagement. On 8 November 1620, they met the rebels just beyond the walls of Prague at White Mountain.

Battle
The Protestant army under Count Thurn and Christian of Anhalt had 11,000 footmen, 5,000 arquebusier horse, 5,000 Hungarian light cavalry, and 10 cannons, drawing up in two lines of battle with interspersing cavalry squadrons between each infantry battalion. The Protestants entrenched themselves on White Mountain, while the Imperial army advanced under the cover of fog. The Catholic League forces positioned themselves on the left and the Imperial forces on the right, and the Habsburg forces organized themselves into tercios. The Duke of Bavaria Maximilian I of Bavaria wanted a quick and decisive victory, so he ordered the Catholic forces to advance after an artillery barrage. Imperial tercios and cavalry on the right advanced up the hill, where they were met by Thurn's elite infantry division. The Bohemians initially had success in their downhill advance, breaking through the Imperial cuirassier cavalry and into one of their tercios with their wheelock pistols. Tilly sent more cuirassiers and dragoons to the right flank and drove the rebel cavalry away, rallying the tercios. The Bohemian infantry began to withdraw upon the sight of their fleeing cavalry, and the Hungarians followed suit. The Catholics then advanced on the Bohemian left flank, and, while the Bohemians halted the tercios, they heard false rebels that 300 Polish cavalry had flanked them and were scared into fleeing. The German mercenaries fighting on the Protestant right flank were unable to flee due to the terrain, and they fought to the death.

Aftermath
The Bohemians rebels were utterly crushed in the field, and Tilly's forces entered Prague the next day. 47 rebel leaders were executed, with 27 of them being executed in the old town square. The estates of the treacherous nobility were sold off to Ferdinand's supporters and their wealth plundered, and Frederick was forced to flee. However, the conflict expanded a year later, and the Thirty Years' War went on to become a major European conflict.